BristolUK

https://toronto.citynews.ca/2020/05/...work-and-home/


And you're equating this with taking a plane to Mexico, or the other stuff I mentioned.

Gozit

Do you not remember Ontarian's being fined last year for going to their cottages?

This is the same thing. It even says summer residence in the article you quoted.

Danny B

I'd be interested to know how unvaccinated South Africa can handle Omicron without a single death in 4 weeks, but 70% vaccinated Britain with its “enviable NHS” is in an emergency? It doesn't make sense.

Siouxie

Stats for 21st December - they are updated daily...
https://www.nicd.ac.za/latest-confir...december-2021/

BristolUK

Yes I do.
Summer being when he's not working at his normal place of work when Parliament sits. You see it's just not the same thing. It's like any MP where they have their home and they have a second place convenient for 'the house'. They even get expenses for that situation because it's something out of the norm.
But more important and for the last time, as per my original post, it does not compare to the other bad examples that made the news where people went on holiday to other countries or travelled the length of England to visit other members of the family for their birthday and retirement celebrations and then went on another 'eyesight testing' drive while there..

Danny B

Agreed. People have been (and still are) dying left right and center from the Delta variant, but people are freaking out over this new variant that has 'only' killed 14 people worldwide so far.

Shouldn't we be thanking our lucky stars that Omicron takes over from Delta?

printer

Yes its complete BS at the moment. BC shutting stuff down and going into panic mode while UK goes pubbing and partying while Boris monitors the situation despite massive numbers and many of his advisers not agreeing. Yes they may change things after Xmas but even the rather stern Scottish minister hasn't gone all out and shut stuff down as yet!

BristolUK

Scotland and Wales have already decided to have no crowds at football and rugby. Something Germany did a couple of weeks ago.

scrubbedexpat099

No problem in the US, we are ready to deal with whatever happens, ski resorts open, bars restaurants etc.

printer

Not exactly the same as shutting down hospitality venues at this time of year, which they haven't done as yet unlike us. It is now pissing off the double and treble vaccinated in BC who have jumped through the hoops and got their vax passport so they could go to the gym, the pub, the clubs and travel. Now they cannot do any of those things except travel although the government is telling people they should not be travelling, certainly internationally, unless absolutely necessary.

old.sparkles

No idea - never watched it all.

I never said anything was inaccurate in the video - just on his youtube channel (he has previously attributed the use of ivermectin as reason for decline in covid in Japan for example (from wikipedia))

old.sparkles

I think you both agree that Omicron is highly transmissible - was it something like multiplies 70 times faster than the original in that video? Also, the R rate is believed to be 3 to 5, and some areas are seeing doubling in two days.

Now this may not be as deadly - but a small percentage of a large number is as significant as a larger percentage of a smaller number in terms of impacts on health care. Add into that, the number of people impacted (infected or close contacts) - that may not affect directly the number of hospitalisations, but will lead to reduced staffing (which can) - and this reduction can affect all workplaces placing added stress on employees (https://www.theguardian.com/culture/...losed-by-covid).

So, there are reasons to be cautious - and to encourage those who can be vaccinated to get vaccinated, and those eligible to get boosters. Wearing of masks indoors are a common sense approach, as is maintaining social distancing. And then see how it goes - and adjust measures as necessary.

printer

I also read this very thing about serious staffing shortages across the UK and with this latest article you would assume that in fact they would be on it big time and no stone unturned to get this under control yet Boris so far has not done so and Nicola Sturgeon also has not gone all out as maybe expected. Of course having the history museum closed is nothing like having a bunch of hospitals closed or any other business that general public rely on daily yet that appears to be a possibility. With the current levels of cases over there (and that's only those that have been tested) this thing is already out of control and almost impossible to reign in now. Maybe they are sitting it out in the hope herd immunity finally takes a hold and things can continue to run because it seems right now that sickness isn't the problem as much as "what if" and by that i mean what if it's not just a cold/cough, maybe it's Omicron so i better stay home and if i get tested and it's positive then everyone i've been in contact with better stay home and all their contacts and so on which is a good thing when hospitals are overflowing with really sick people and deaths are mounting but not such a great idea if most of those isolating are totally fine. If we treated every flu season this way we would have this issue every year.

Paul_Shepherd

I said exactly the same thing the other day.... the sh!thead media and some other people are losing their minds over omicron and "case counts" I think as you say we should actually be thanking out lucky stars.... it overtaken a more deadly variant... who cares if 4000 peole caught a cold yesterday, its a little diferent to the actual deaths and hospitalisations that were being caused by Delta.... perspective seems to have gone clean out of the window.

Shard

The concern is that Omicron is highly transmissable and has slightly higher immune escape. That means, for example, instead of 10.000 infections there could be 100.000 infections (guesstimate numbers). Even if severity/lethality (hospitalizations) of Omicron is lower than Delta, say 0.1% vs 0.5% the impact of large numbers will be signifcant. In this example 10.000 x 0.5% = 50 hospitalizations (Delta) vs 100.000 x0.1% = 100 hospitalzations (Omicron).

For those that end up in hospital it will not be "a cold" it will be major body damage or death, and it will cost the public money to treat and care for these individuals. In addition, if the hospitals do paradoxically fill up because of the milder Omicron, there will be cancelled operations and treatements (eg. cancer, cardiac). That has happened and will happen again if the public is dismissive of the risk.

I'm not sure if you saw the post, but one of BE'ers in Nova Scotia reported on catching Covid and being seriously debilitated by long Covid for several months (at the time of her posting). Caution is the right approach.